[Article] "Trimming the fat" in MMOs, and getting to the goods: meaningful player interaction

[theomancer 37]

This was a pretty sweet article, thinking about sandbox PvP and facilitating player interaction.

 

https://medium.com/@dbltnk/compression-cutting-out-the-fat-7c221888d8b2

 

Trimming spatial excess:

(1) Reduce world size to increase player interaction (in contrast to Darkfall, Mortal Online, DayZ, etc.)

(2) Create choke points (bridge over a creek)
(3) Use points of interest (resources/treasure on map)

 

Trimming temporal excess:

(1) Campaigns with a beginning and an end, and fresh starts
(2) Create highlights that attract players: special creature spawns, etc.

(3) Focus on prime time, perhaps even reduce some servers' uptime for different timezones

 

Trimming antisocial content excess:

(1) Higher server quantity with more realistic community size where "everybody knows your name"
(2) Don't employ instancing

(3) De-emphasize solo play

 

All very good and thoughtful ideas! (Das Tal is like Crowfall for the MMO meta-gameplay, but with MOBA combat mechanics!)

 

 

[bairloch 2,136]

I'd disagree with the reducing world size to increase interaction. We interacted a ton in the original EQ and it was a lot bigger than most modern MMOs. We interacted because there was forced downtime. Boat rides, waiting to heal up, waiting for spawns. These things weren't all good, but our age of instant gratification takes away a LOT of options for interaction. So, imho, they should add to their list "purposeful downtime".